5 Responses to Friday, May 11, 2012

pranks!? stupid things!?…it’s clear that you have a closet full of demons from your own high school days that still haunt you and, so, taking mitt off the hook may suit your needs, but what he did when he had his schoolmate held down by his pals was ASSAULT, unlawful restraint and, by gathering his posse for the purpose, maybe conspiracy (and, no, not all eighteen year-olds are so heedless and mean)…now consider what the teacher just told you (6:43 a.m.) about bullies and the evolution of their behavior…consider, too, what’s going on today, romney’s waldheimlich manuver on the incident so vivid in the meories of his henchmen, is a zero on his own conscience, not hard to trace the line from this boy to the man who gave no aid to the gay soldier who was booed by mitt’s audience at a rally (where, as you know, audiences are made by staff to ensure a proper “choir”)…never mind the gay gut he let go for refusing to ride on the top of the campaign bus, not hard to find his insensitivity (the cookies in georgia) and his disconnect from average citizens (i’m unemployed, too!)in his daily conduct.

the last thing you should do is excuse this stuff, in yourself as well, putting it behind as “dumb stuff” guarantees only that a significant amount of one’s conduct is framed rather by repression than understanding, (you must have read ibsen and o’neill, at least, in college)…in one case i’m particularly familiar with, the lesson came when the culprit faced the act of throwing stones, with some pride in marksmanship, and breaking several high-up school-office windows, (vandalism with it’s “prank” wrapper off), and discovering a deep vein of anger that, once exposed, became manageable until its energies were, essentially, converted to uses elsewhere.

Your comments concerning Mitt Romney’s assault of a gay classmate are insulting, callous and ill-conceived. This is not particularly surprising, since I have noted you have a tendency to pooh-pooh the concerns of gay people. Your reasoning that because you remember bullying gay people in school you don’t think it’s any big deal (yes, Bill, that is exactly how it sounded)is ludicorous, disingenuous and self-serving. The fact that plenty of racists lynched black men in the American south doesn’t make each one of them less guilty of murder. It appears you would like to assuage your conscience by telling yourself (and your listeners) “it was all just part of growing up. What’s all the fuss?” If you want absoulution go to a priest. Or try apologizing to the people you hurt. Don’t demean the dialogue that is going on about holding someone accountable for their actions in a cheap, smarmy attempt to cut yourself a pass for what you did. You are responsible. I’m assuming free-will was discussed in the theological studies to which one of your callers alluded. It’s not 1970 anymore, Bill. People aren’t so very impressed with your air of noblesse oblige. Spare us the paternalistic bromides you dispense to quiet the troublesome rumblings in your congnitive innards. Be a man. Take responsibility. As it is, you sound like a camp guard defending the commandant of Auschwitz, hoping maybe he’ll resciprocate. Your victims and Mitt Romney’s are the ones you should be looking to for forgiveness. Or ask God, if you believe in one; certainly not your fellow criminals. And, make no mistake about it – what Mitt Romney did was a crime. Your attempt to sweep yet another instance of gay-bashing under the carpet, so that you can continue to ingnore your own culpability is tranparent and narcissistic, and what’s more, it’s cowardly and dishonest. Shame on you!

Mr. Press, you’re wrong about Mitt’s high school pattern of bullying. This isn’t a pattern of adolescent “pranks,” it’s a pattern of bullying and cruelty and I can’t imagine why you insist it’s not relevant and shouldn’t be considered. I have two grown sons and I know kids are mean as hell to each other, but this isn’t normal, and it adds to what we already know about this man: that he has a mean streak a mile wide.

The haircutting incident? That was assault, and the cowardice and cruelty it reveals are relevant if anything is. Stop defending this pattern. I rarely disagree with you, sir, but on this subject you could not possibly be more off base. You could hardly be more wrong about this.

Regarding Mitt’s forced haircut; was this just a one time event? Or did this incident fore shadow more bullying behavior by Mitt. What was he like in college? What about his career as a corporate raider? Bane Capitol often took advantage of weaker companies. Bane gave financial hair cuts to their corporate targets and their employees. Look at what he did to his political foes. Maybe he’s still a bully.
Mike